The difference between what Starmer has done with Wavertree CLP & the previous leadership’s approach to antisemitism: Rosie Duffield (in an ultra-marginal seat) was censured by 19 members of her CLP for attending #EnoughIsEnough demo & speaking at @JewishLabour conference. 
It was that horrible summer and there was a bit of coverage about it. Corbyn got collared in an interview on BBC South East. His advisor, James Schneider, stopped the interview, as soon as the censure brought up, in order to spin it as being a motion involving only two people.
Two execs wrote it but 19 endorsed it - which they knew full well. This included Canterbury CLP member, Dylan Strain, who claimed that D. Baddiel wrote Tracey Ullman’s ‘anti-Corbyn’ sketch & Rosie Duffield was more like an MP for Israel because of her opposition to antisemitism.
(A clip of the interview is here m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…) although the full version is not available, which is excruciating).
Corbyn refuses to condemn the motion directly until repeatedly pushed - and even then the best he could splutter was that he was glad the motion was-
Corbyn refuses to condemn the motion directly until repeatedly pushed - and even then the best he could splutter was that he was glad the motion was-
withdrawn. But the main thing was… the people who endorsed that motion got no signal that they weren’t welcome in the party. The leadership couldn’t, wouldn’t, send that signal - bar vague general denunciations of antisemitism that everyone could get behind.
What infuriates so much about that interview is that stuff like that happened literally everyday, for years, and people tried to claim it was about process or that some antisemites had wandered into the party and they’re trying to get rid of them.
The gall of that, from people who knew better, was truly remarkable. And it tells the story of why, rightly or wrongly, there is now indignation about some of the reaction to that Miliband cartoon, or one book on a shelf, or an innocent-looking book cover.
But you knew that.
But you knew that.
Because contrast that with the immediate condemnation and suspension of the four members who wrote a letter of condemnation to their MP, Paula Barker, for saying she regretted that Luciana Berger left the party. That's the difference. But you know that.
